New service for Tauranga's rough sleepers launched

Our Community Project chair Steph O'Sullivan says it is great to see Tauranga's homelessness issue recognised by central government. Photo/file

A dedicated service for people sleeping rough in Tauranga will be established in the CBD, it has been announced today.

Associate Minister of Housing and Urban Development Jenny Salesa said The People's Project will deliver a Housing First service in the city.

The People's Project, which has been very successful in addressing homelessness for rough sleepers in Hamilton, was established by the Wise Group. Last year, the group was invited by Our Community Project (OCP) to work together to design and develop a similar solution for Tauranga. Our Community Project is a multi-agency group representing key organisations dedicated to finding sustainable solutions for ending homelessness in Tauranga.

Our Community Project chair Steph O'Sullivan said the increase in rough sleepers in the city had deeply concerned the community.

"It is great to see the need here in Tauranga recognised by central government ... We've acted as a community, taken a partnership approach and through sheer determination supported and championed the need for a long-term solution to rough sleeping in Tauranga."

The People's Project's Julie Nelson said its experience of working with rough sleepers in Hamilton had given the team an in-depth knowledge of what works.

"There are similarities between Tauranga and Hamilton, in that we started working in Hamilton with a specific group of people who were known to council staff and police around the city for sleeping rough. Three years on and we have a team that is fully trained in the evidence-based Housing First approach, and which has currently supported 867 people into 486 households," Ms Nelson said.

An office will be set up in the CBD and local people will be sought in a recruiting process.

"We'll be working closely with Tauranga's emergency, transitional and community housing providers so that we can support people through the housing continuum. There is a need for all our services to work together as part of a whole of systems approach," she said.

Tauranga City Council councillor Leanne Brown said the announcement was welcome news.

"We've been working on finding a sustainable solution to end homelessness in Tauranga for some time. We're looking forward to The People's Project being established in Tauranga to deliver a Housing First service which has a proven track record of success. But we also need to acknowledge that once it is established people's circumstances won't change overnight.

"It's going to be a marathon, not a sprint, but this is the catalyst we needed to help us get out of the starting blocks. Positive change absolutely will happen for people, and it will happen sustainably to ensure their long-term success," Cr Brown said.

The People's Project will be funded by the Ministry of Social Development to work with 100 rough sleepers in Tauranga over the next two years.

The People's Project aims to be open and operating by April.